Ex-communist Europe

Kosovo and social cleansing

Boris Johnson's idiocy

YOU often hear Balkan-watchers say that there is nothing they yearn for more than to see the former warring states and peoples of this troubled region melt back into a humdrum obscurity, punctuated only by the odd sporting victory. In truth though, nothing gives them greater pleasure than to see the Balkans emblazoned on the front page of a major western daily newspaper.

Today is a slight exception. Anyone with a smattering of knowledge about Kosovo can have only found the sight of the country's name on the front page of the (London) Times—today's splash is “Boris puts the coalition in a spin with Kosovo gibe” [no link as the newspaper is behind a paywall]—annoying.

The story is about housing benefit reforms in Britain, which, says the newspaper, could see as many as 82,000 poor households in London having to move. Yesterday, Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, said: “We will not accept a kind of Kosovo-style social cleansing of London… On my watch, you are not going to see thousands of families evicted from the place they have put down roots.”

A cartoon in the Guardian today depicts David Cameron, the British prime minister and the leader of Mr Johnson's Conservative Party, in military uniform with an identifiable traditional Serbian military cap, recalling oft-published pictures of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military leader who has been indicted for genocide.

The Times says that Mr Johnson's remark, which embarrassed the prime minister, suggests that the mayor would eventually like to take over the top job from Mr Cameron. Interestingly, that presents a parallel with Kosovo, where Isa Mustafa, the mayor of Pristina, is seeking to topple Fatmir Sejdiu, the former president and prime ministerial hopeful. (One more comparison. Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, now sports London black cabs on its streets—see right.)

Mr Johnson's comment is, needless to say, idiotic in the extreme. At a stretch you could argue that before the Balkan wars, the phenomenon of big Albanian families in Kosovo buying scarce land and houses from Serbs, who would then move to Serbia, was a form of "social cleansing", but that is clearly not the point of Mr Johnson's remark.

A quick (and slightly simplified) history lesson. In 1999 the Serbs "cleansed" hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, who returned following the NATO attack on Serbia. Kosovo's Serbs then fled in turn, or were themselves ethnically cleansed. For poor British families, while being moved from a plush pad in Kensington to the dingy suburbs may be irritating, even traumatic, it is hardly on a par with ethnic cleansing, murder and mass graves.

By coincidence Mr Johnson's remark comes at the same time as the publication of a new Human Rights Watch report about Kosovo Roma. In it, the NGO appeals to western countries not to deport Kosovo Roma refugees back to their home country, where they face “discrimination and severe deprivation amounting to human rights abuse”. Those who have been sent back, says the report:

experience problems getting identity documents as well as regaining possession of any property they own. They also have difficulties accessing housing, health care, employment, and social welfare services. Many end up in places where they are separated from family members. The deportations are especially hard on children, few of whom stay in school due to the lack of language skills, curriculum differences, and poverty.

The report goes on to note:

About 50,000 Roma, most of them Serbian-speaking, and two Albanian-speaking minorities—Ashkali and Egyptians, who claim origins in ancient Egypt—have been deported to Kosovo since 1999. The numbers look set to rise, with as many as 12,000 people facing deportation from Germany alone. Lack of assistance from international donors and the Kosovo government to those who are deported means that the burden of helping them once they arrive in Kosovo falls on the Kosovo communities of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, the majority of whom live in acute poverty.

Kosovo's Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians are historically its poorest and its most economically, politically, and socially marginalized minority. In recent years, many have been displaced because of the war, ethnic conflict, extreme poverty, and political instability. Their numbers decreased from more than 200,000 before the war in 1999 to 38,000 today. The Roma have often been the targets of violent attacks, spurned by some Kosovo Albanians—the largest ethnic group in Kosovo—as “collaborators” with the minority Serb population.

It would be interesting to know if any Kosovo Roma in London risk being socially cleansed before being deported back to the country that they were ethnically cleansed from.

I'm not convinced in Boris Johnson's remark idiocy, but am absolutely certain that you should think not twice, but at least once before publishing this no-brainer:

"...before the Balkan wars, the phenomenon of big Albanian families in Kosovo buying scarce land and houses from Serbs, who would then move to Serbia"

Even now - after, not before the Balkan wars - Kosovo is still part of Serbia, but you imply that back then Kosovo somehow was outside of her?!

Secondly, Johnson undoubtedly had in mind violent ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Pristina in particular and Kosovo in general by the Albanian drug trafficking, white sex slaves running, terrorist cartels supported by the EU and NATO.

As a resident of K&C who happens to be tax-paying, property-owning and to put the cherry on the cake: serbian; I read this matter with great bemusement. For once it is not about the age old conflict between serbs and albanians (it won't go away soon, so the above balkan-watchers need not make haste and rock up at a job-centre just yet), but the use of the term "kosovo", to describe housing issues (and relocation) in central london. We may see here the english language at work soon: "kosovoization" - "relocation of benefit receivers from a rich to a poor borough". So, the 16-year old single mum up on Great Western Road may soon state, after safely arriving in Wormwood scrubs, "I've been kosovisized". Funny.

I guess we can add Pristina to the list of great towns that Boris has offended. Surely the Economist is a aware that Boris' utterances should be automatically discounted to a degree? This is a man who called Paxman a girly swot on TV - he's not the chairman of the Fed, for heaven's sake.

It is an absolute shame, that even the Economist such an outstanding household name, makes use of ill-informed and ignorant "google" journalists, the likes of this article.

Despite Boris Johnsons aspirations and cock-ups, I believe that on top of their political agenda, the economist, should at least filter ignorance (RE: "At a stretch you could argue that before the Balkan wars, the phenomenon of big Albanian families in Kosovo buying scarce land and houses from Serbs, who would then move to Serbia, was a form of social cleansing").

As far as the Roma are concerned, I would make a recommendation of looking up treatment of Roma communities amongst various European member states, then in Serbia and Kosova. Try comparing the two and their treatment of minorities, or even not just with Serbia but even some European member states...

For goodness sake, I think that they should really study the history of Kosova before publishing rubbish like that. They have forgotten all about the tax payers and all the benefits that UK actually receives from Kosova people. The fact that these people come to UK and seek for evac, gives you a clear idea that these people want to contribute and be part of us, yet it is not the first time that UK is afraid of its own people.
Don’t forget that facts show that many Roma people have helped in committing atrocities in Kosova, so I think you should not be way too smart to put two and two together, on why they are being ‘discriminated’.
At the end of the day if you closely look, its business, most of them come from all over Europe and they take them back to Kosova where they don’t even come from. I hear a lot of the word CLENSING in your comments also in the report than: IS IT NOT CLENSING BY MOVING THESE PEOPLE AWAY FROM THEIR HOMES?

"the phenomenon of big Albanian families in Kosovo buying scarce land and houses from Serbs, who would then move to Serbia, was a form of "social cleansing", but that is clearly not the point of Mr Johnson's remark"

Albanians have just managed to survive history, and you make such stupid claims.

I enjoy many lovely British towns but the sad truth is that London is a synonym for desperation that haunts me anytime I’m in London. So many grim, dirty neighbourhoods with scraggly houses and people drifting around the streets aimlessly… The state of the houses, indeed, reminds me of those in which Roma inhabitants squat in CEE. Therefore if the side effect of the housing benefits reform will be reconstruction of those neighbourhoods, it would be surely great.

On the other hand, I understand that the question is what to do with the current inhabitants. The experience from my country shows that the when a mayor of a Moravian town moved several families who illegally squatted and totally destroyed houses in the city centre to nearby villages, they spawned media ado about violating their human rights – even though they didn’t have legal title to claim any housing at all and finding them the new housing outside the town was a good will of the town council. I can’t imagine how this could be done with hundreds of thousands similar inhabitants in London… Therefore Mr. Johnson is really in an unenviable situation (hadling so many people who lose benfits and will not be able to pay their rents) and I’m not surprised he’s little bit touchy and uses exagerated statements…

The Economist wrote:
"It would be interesting to know if any Kosovo Roma in London risk being socially cleansed before being deported back to the country that they were ethnically cleansed from".
1. What Milosevic regime done to ethnic Albanians was wrong and unacceptable, but also mention who had ethnically cleansed non-Albanian ethnic groups with NATO patronage? Surely Serbs could not as they were subject of ethnic cleansing after 1999 bombing campaign (with no UN Security Council approval).

2. Boris Johnson remarks on Kosovo are just continuation of the Western racist-like views of the South Eastern Europe
3. The West for a long time watch this part of Europe (or as the Westerners coined a name the Balkans,which is in eyes of Europe its "the other" with sense of self-superiority. The term Balkans which was mentioned by the British travelers first time in late 19th century) the Western media often call 'troubled region', but they fail ever to mention the role of Great Britain, Germany, Austria, and in newer history of the US, who through out of history would seek to divide and rule nations on ethnic, religious or ideological basis and play they dirty geo-political games with Russia or Ottoman empire in that part of Europe and who all brought misery to peoples of South-Eastern Europe. The Westerns even invented terms like 'Balkanisation' to ridicule political realities of region that has three mayor religions, long history and bad luck that is easily manipulated by outsiders. Now Western apply Saudi Arabia and Iran joined the club spreading Wahhabism and religious intolerance and planting seeds for new wars. To Albanians and Serbs I would recommend you to open eyes, break the circle of violence, admit and research war crimes committed on all sides start and start looking for ways to reconcile and leave morally corrupted West to preach their morality sourcing from Anglo-American and Germanic 'superiority' somewhere else. Oh wait, you guys do not have any more colonies and enslaved nations. Bad luck, try preaching to China if you can any more.